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Fanciful Fourth of July Postcards with Uncle Sam and Children

VintagePostcards — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:14:25 +0000

Happy Fourth of July to our readers! July Fourth, with its patriotic images of Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty, and the holiday’s association with fireworks, led to fanciful, festive postcards with splendid graphics at the turn of the 20th century. Above, we see a finely detailed and embossed 1911 Fourth of July post card showing a young girl surrounded by fireworks and firecrackers, as a cannon detonates next to her. The American flag waves patriotically in the background. Now, of course, we’d be horrified to see a child standing next to a detonating cannon.

Everyone would gasp in horror now at the thought of a young boy running with wild abandon while firing a pistol in the air, but Uncle Sam looks on approvingly as he holds firecrackers aloft while fireworks explode in the background. This unused vintage postcard dates to about 1907. Postcards depicting Uncle Sam are themselves highly collectible.

Read about little-known April Fool’s Day postcards, or see more Fourth of July post cards at our website. Visit the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Happy April Fool’s Day from France

VintagePostcards — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:25:25 +0000

Happy April Fool’s Day! During the “golden era” of postcard collecting, from about 1901 to 1915, the French loved to send one another postcards celebrating this improbable holiday. April Fool’s Day postcards were quite fanciful and often featured fish, traditionally associated in France with memory improvement. This scarce c. 1915 to 1920s real-photo fantasy post card depicts a flying fish with airplane wings, who transports a young girl while holding a peppermint candy in his mouth.

(Thinking: Drugs? Who needs drugs, with an imagination like this?)

Read about a great Easter postcard, or see dozens of holiday post cards at our website. Visit the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Easter Bunny Mother and Child, a Fantasy Holiday Postcard

VintagePostcards — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:25:39 +0000

With the Easter holiday fast approaching on April 12, we just had to share this charming new arrival with you. This c. 1907 fanciful Easter holiday postcard, embossed and gilded, depicts a mother rabbit in a red dress and her child rabbit holding up a sign that reads: “Be Sure and Have a Good Time.” Or, perhaps it’s a schoolmarm rabbit and her student. At any rate, it’s fun.

The antique postcard was published by an unknown postcard publisher in Germany, and is of the high quality — with careful attention to detail — often seen in early post cards published in that country. Happy Easter!

Read more about Easter postcards, or see more Easter post cards at our website. Visit the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Happy New Year from Two Vintage Postcard Artists

VintagePostcards — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:40:22 +0000

Happy New Year from VintagePostcards.org! Each year at this time, the world is full of hope and promise, that things can and will be better in the New Year. And that’s our wish for you — that your New Year is the best and brightest you’ve ever had.

In the spirit of things, here’s a scarce 1904 artist-signed Gertrud Caspari postcard celebrating the New Year’s holiday. Four children stroll past a castle while bearing a heart, food, money and flowers. Caspari was the most important childrens’s book illustrator of the time in Germany, and was known for her use of the bright, elementary colors seen in this graphically sophisticated composition. It bears a 1903 Dresden postmark and is in excellent condition.

Basically, the earlier the date of the New Year’s postcard, the more valuable it is. Dates after about 1906 are relatively common. You can learn more about Caspari on our reference page about postcard artists.

A graphically striking 1910 New Year’s postcard, artist-signed by H. B. Griggs, shows a toddler with a quill pen writing in a book about the noble aspirations and resolutions that we all have this time of year. Nicely rendered, this postcard was published by Lubrie & Elkins, Series No. 2266, and is in excellent condition.

Read another post about winter holidays, see more holiday postcards, or curl up and browse the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Welcome Winter, with Children Sledding

VintagePostcards — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 04:11:12 +0000

Although winter doesn’t officially start until December 22, it’s been abnormally chilly here, with snow flurries and temperatures down to about 15 degrees F. As we sipped hot chocolate, we were reminded of the glee we felt when young and faced with new-fallen snow. A blank canvas upon which to busily build forts, create snowmen, and go sledding. The children in this artist-signed H. B. Griggs postcard remind us of those times.

This Griggs postcard has outstanding graphics and a striking composition. It dates to 1907-1915. Colorful, nicely embossed and gilded, it was from Griggs’ Christmas Series No. 2264 for the Leubrie & Elkus postcard publishing company. Griggs postcards are sometimes signed with the initials H. B. G. Herbert Griggs designed at least 350 holiday postcards.

See another fanciful Christmas postcard, or see more holiday postcards at our website. Or, curl up and browse the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Happy Thanksgiving from Lady Liberty

VintagePostcards — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:40:52 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Here’s a noteworthy 1908 Thanksgiving greetings postcard of a patriotic Lady Liberty, clad in a flag costume and perhaps shepherding two turkeys to their ultimate fate! Gilded, embossed and in excellent condition, this one was a keeper, and flew off the shelves.

Read about a fanciful Halloween postcard, or see more holiday postcards at our website. Browse the world’s largest postcard bookstore.

Uncle Sam Wishes You a Patriotic Merry Christmas

VintagePostcards — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:16:06 +0000

There’s finally a chill in the air and Christmas is closer than we think. (We know, you didn’t want to hear that!) As an early Christmas present, we thought we’d share this unusual Christmas postcard. With striking graphics, this out-of-the-ordinary 1910 postcard shows a patriotic Uncle Sam wishing us a Merry Christmas holiday. It was published by Arthur Horwitz, and is in very good condition. We’ll be showcasing more holiday postcards over the coming weeks.

See some ice skating postcards, or view more Christmas postcards at our website. We also offer the world’s largest selection of postcard books.

A Fanciful Halloween Postcard

VintagePostcards — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:02:04 +0000

Halloween is our favorite holiday — everyone gets to be a child again. Halloween postcards are among the most popular of all collectible postcards, in part because of their fanciful nature. This c. 1907-1915 example has splendid graphics, depicting a young boy holding a jack o’lantern, as its smoke produces a witch on a broom with long, flowing brown hair. An owl sits to the right. Profusely gilded and embossed and with deep, rich colors, this is a fine example of a Halloween fantasy postcard. Happy Halloween!

Read more about Halloween postcards, or see more Halloween postcards at our website. We also offer the world’s largest selection of postcard books.

July Fourth Holiday Vintage Postcard

VintagePostcards — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:43:57 +0000

What fun! Here’s an unused c. 1907 patriotic Fourth of July postcard with great graphics. The lady has a Gibson Girl-style up-swept hairdo and a finely detailed white lace dress on. She holds aloft a lit firecracker, with more firecrackers and a noisemaker in her other hand. Gilded and embossed, with American flag shields in the bottom corners and the whole topped by an American eagle. We hope you have a great Independence Day!

See more Fourth of July and holiday postcards at our website.

Fanciful Easter Rabbits Inspect Easter Eggs

VintagePostcards — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:12:10 +0000

Happy Easter from two handsome Victorian-era rabbits! This vivid antique postcard shows them checking out some colored Easter eggs for the Easter holiday. Did you color Easter eggs with your mother? We did. Lavishly gilded and embossed, this vintage post card is also bedecked with violets, a symbol of remembrance in Victorian times. The post card is of high quality, and was probably published in Germany. It was sent by Aunt Kate to Glenn Fravel of Cresco, Iowa in 1913. We hope Glenn enjoyed this little treasure as much as we do!

Read about a fanciful Valentine’s Day postcard, and see the colorful holiday postcards at our website.